Today was the day we went to the wonderful city of Hallstatt, the place we have only been reading about since we decided to go on this trip. It’s not only a UNESCO World Heritage City, but it also covers the front of the Lonely Planet Austria edition. Waking up with excitement and eating a simple breakfast, we took off for the train station. Aboard the train, we only had one change in the middle and the whole trip was about two and half hours. The train ride there was nothing but gorgeous.

Arriving at the little Hallstatt station (that was pretty much just a simple walking platform with a Hallstatt sign), we made our way down a narrow path to catch the ferry to take us accross the lake to the town. The ferry was five euros round trip per person and continued all day long every thirty minutes. We boarded the ferry and all I can say is WOW! This was the most beautiful place I have ever seen, it was like what you see in the movies but 100x greater (Hallmark has nothing on this town). There were swans swimming right on the edge of the lake and people with their dogs enjoying the sun. The colors of the houses and the market fit perfectly with the mountain behind, If I could tell anyone coming to Austria this is a must see.

After exploring the city center we took a tram to the top of the mountain, where we walked out on the sky-walk and took pictures that overlooked this massive lake in between two gorgeous mountains. It was a chili day up on the mountain but nothing was going to stop us, so we decided to have our usual beer and wine and even ordered some peach schnapps to warm us up. We had knocked out another dream of ours for this trip and it couldn’t have been any more perfect. Four o’clock came too fast but was just the right amount of time to really explore the small town of Hallstatt.

Gabriel and I caught the ferry and the train and headed back to Salzburg for our last night’s dinner and walk through the town. Italian food was our choice of the night and it hit the spot. Gabriel enjoyed an orecchiette pasta with steak strips in a lemmon cream sauce and I enjoyed spinach, ricotta and mozzarella tortelini in a cheesy cream sauce with the house red wine… we couldn’t complain, it was delicious. Later we strolled through the city and stopped at a bar and enjoyed some drinks before we headed back to the last night at the B&B before we headed to Innsbruck in the morning.